CFZ What the 49er playoff loss should teach us about the 2022 season

[plymkr]

I don’t need to tell any Cowboys fan around here how disappointing that wild card game loss was to the 49ers last January. It was simply awful.

But nearly 7 months later, there are some things we could learn from that game if we want to take the next step and at least make an NFC championship game for the first time in 26 years. Here is a list of what that playoff taught us- have we made the right adjustments?

FIRST- SOME GAME FACTS- NINERS 23-COWBOYS 16

• The niners told us the week before the game they were going to run the ball down our throats. And they did exactly that, rushing for 169 yards.
• The niners had 341 total yards to 307 for the cowboys.
  
• The niners had 5 sacks; we had zero.
• The niners won TOP 34 minutes to 26 for Dallas. And that’s after we had the ball for most of the 4th qtr.
• In the niners first 7 possessions of the game, they scored 5 times and on their last possession of the first half, they even took a knee, leading 16-7.
• The Cowboys did not make a sack all game, and only had 4 pressures. Micah Parsons was consistently neutralized when rushing and D-Law was too. Randy Gregory had a few pressures but he had some stupid penalties too.
• The Cowboys OL got whipped all day. Tyron Smith had his worst game of the season and Connor Williams had his usual bad holding call at the worst time.
  
• For some reason Dak (or Kellen Moore) were choosing to not get the ball in the hands of their best playmakers.

So what can we learn from this?

• The trenches is where we got whipped and the biggest reason we lost that playoff game. IMO, It remains the biggest problem this team has. Not enough in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
• FOOTBALL 101: The team who wins the trenches usually wins- especially in the playoffs. You need skill position players too, but without the big guys on the line holding their own, you can’t win playoff games.

So here are some questions going into 2022 based on what last year should have taught us:

1. Did we strengthen our OL and DL this off-season? Enough to avoid a repeat of what the niners did to us last January? Can we finally stop the run?
2. Will our offense be able to get the ball to playmakers regardless of what the defense is doing? Dumping passes to Dalton Schultz all day won’t get it done. Can Kellen Moore get better? Can Dak consistently get the ball to his playmakers?

The answers to these questions will probably determine if this team does something more than what it’s done the last qtr century. We will start seeing soon.

This post reminds me how happy I am we put draft capital to the offensive line and the pass rush. I don't know who decided not to throw the ball to CeeDee, either Dak or Moore, but as you stated we need that fixed. Also the stupid penalties need fixing. But at least we addressed some of that in the offseason by drafting for the trenches, drafting a potential playmaker at WR with Tolbert and letting Williams and Gregory go to other teams and take their penalties with them.

 

[Flamma]

I think an important issue in regards to the line play was the never ending lineup changes due to injuries.

The entire projected starting defensive line went down before the season even started.

Lawrence, Gregory, Gallimore, and Hill were generally assumed to be the starters.

Well, these four projected starters were the actual starters for 29.4% of their games. In fact, only one defensive lineman on the team started more than 12 games.

There were instances in a game were the four D-linemen on the field at a particular point in a game were all rookies

There is a general misunderstanding among fans when discussing momentum going into the playoffs. Most associate the word with winning streaks or a season ending surge in their quality of play. It is actually a culmination of familiarity and cohesion with the newer players on the team or with the system of a new coordinator.

I can't stress the importance of consistency in the quality of play in a playoff bound team. Just as importance is the consistency in the starting lineup.

The defensive line had consecutive weeks of the same starters only three times throughout the entire season. The line was talented in many places but so what? They just couldn't jell because they were unfamiliar with each other and couldn't make up the lost time due to injury or other issues. They never created a cohesive unit.

The same was partially true for the offensive line as well. One of the major blunders was the O-line starters shakeup that changed the two O-line starters past the midway point of the season. The other blunder was tolerating La'el Collions decline in work habits, attitude, and commitment. Then there was that same rash of injuries that prevented the O-line from a well coordinated run blocking scheme.

You look at the starting O-linemen on a Super Bowl team and you usually find that most of them started almost every game that season. The Cowboys last SB team featured 5 starting O-linemen that missed a combined 5 of 80 starts that regular season and three of those guys were 34 or older.

One of the keys to success is a relatively healthy unit of starters that doesn't miss any serious time on the field, and which improves as the season progresses. This team is due some good luck in this area and if it happens then you will see a team with an entirely different set of results in the postseason.

Very good post. Cohesion is extremely important. Most importantly on the LOS, but elsewhere as well. Lack of it is most notable in week 1. Sometimes it takes several weeks for a team to gel. They improve as the season goes on. If you keep mixing and matching due to injury, you're closer to week 1 than a cohesive unit.

 

[Stash]

I don’t need to tell any Cowboys fan around here how disappointing that wild card game loss was to the 49ers last January. It was simply awful.

But nearly 7 months later, there are some things we could learn from that game if we want to take the next step and at least make an NFC championship game for the first time in 26 years. Here is a list of what that playoff taught us- have we made the right adjustments?

FIRST- SOME GAME FACTS- NINERS 23-COWBOYS 16

• The niners told us the week before the game they were going to run the ball down our throats. And they did exactly that, rushing for 169 yards.
• The niners had 341 total yards to 307 for the cowboys.
  
• The niners had 5 sacks; we had zero.
• The niners won TOP 34 minutes to 26 for Dallas. And that’s after we had the ball for most of the 4th qtr.
• In the niners first 7 possessions of the game, they scored 5 times and on their last possession of the first half, they even took a knee, leading 16-7.
• The Cowboys did not make a sack all game, and only had 4 pressures. Micah Parsons was consistently neutralized when rushing and D-Law was too. Randy Gregory had a few pressures but he had some stupid penalties too.
• The Cowboys OL got whipped all day. Tyron Smith had his worst game of the season and Connor Williams had his usual bad holding call at the worst time.
  
• For some reason Dak (or Kellen Moore) were choosing to not get the ball in the hands of their best playmakers.

So what can we learn from this?

• The trenches is where we got whipped and the biggest reason we lost that playoff game. IMO, It remains the biggest problem this team has. Not enough in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
• FOOTBALL 101: The team who wins the trenches usually wins- especially in the playoffs. You need skill position players too, but without the big guys on the line holding their own, you can’t win playoff games.

So here are some questions going into 2022 based on what last year should have taught us:

1. Did we strengthen our OL and DL this off-season? Enough to avoid a repeat of what the niners did to us last January? Can we finally stop the run?
2. Will our offense be able to get the ball to playmakers regardless of what the defense is doing? Dumping passes to Dalton Schultz all day won’t get it done. Can Kellen Moore get better? Can Dak consistently get the ball to his playmakers?

The answers to these questions will probably determine if this team does something more than what it’s done the last qtr century. We will start seeing soon.

I’m in complete agreement with you here. It came down to being outplayed on both lines of scrimmage. But I think the ways to fix (or at least lessen) those issues are different.

I think the offensive line quite simply needs to get tougher and stronger. I believe that they got soft and bought into their own hype. That - coupled with players lacking the required strength and power - contributed to that embarrassing performance. Hopefully, swapping out Tyler Smith for Connor Williams at left guard is a big difference in several ways, including allowing Biadasz to focus on his own issues at center.

In terms of stopping the run defensively, I think it is more scheme-related rather than a personnel issue. I think Dan Quinn needs to make some adjustments to his defense and playcalling to make stopping the run a bigger priority. It’s great that the pass rush was improved, but to truly become a great defense, stopping the run has to reach that higher level too. I think more sound play calls will help.

 

[Bobhaze]

It's not about who's wrong or who's right. It's about calling it like it is. If someone makes it clear year after year they dislike a player and constantly bash that player, what do you call that? A hater, correct? Or is it too much? Is labels off limits? Is this part of the new rules?

“Calling it like it is” is usually an opinion. Fans who strongly dislike a player are usually just fans who strongly dislike a player. No fan here is required to like any player. I don’t usually like hearing fans bash one particular player over and over. But that’s their right. As long as they are following the rules. If you do like that same player, say you disagree and why.

There are no “new rules”. When each of us signed up to be on this forum we agreed to follow the same set of rules. Rules 8 and 9 tell us we should not “personally attack or insult other members”, nor “troll or antagonize other members”. Those two are the rules most often violated around here. Someone doesn’t like an opinion thrown out so they begin insulting and name calling. To me when someone starts that stuff, you have already lost the argument.

 

[CowboyFrog]

It cracks me up we still have some here who "Watched" that game and thought "Man with better QB play we would've won".....2 things

1. Yes Dak did not play a good game so he deserves just as much blame as any other player on the team for the lose
2. when your team gets whipped to a man at every position there is no "One player" who couldve won that game, the niners got cute late and made the score closer than it really was...in hindsight they literally could have just kept handing the ball off and won by several touchdowns...

These things pretty much seal your fate

They could drop full coverage and get good pressure and stop the run with 5-6 man fronts (not good for winning a game)
They gained over 5 yards per carry even with us crowding the line (again not good for winning a game)
They had half the penalties and really one questionable one made the yardage kinda close...we tried to give up 100 yards in penalties (not good for winning a game)
Our coaches seemed to be at a lose on how to fix this over the last 6 games...(not good for winning a playoff game)

you could not run the ball on light fronts and you could not stop the pass rush on the same light fronts
you could not stop the run no matter how many people you stacked the box with
you gave them 90 yards in penalties

Which one of those speaks to "Lets replace one player and we win"?

 

[America's Cowboy]

“Calling it like it is” is usually an opinion. Fans who strongly dislike a player are usually just fans who strongly dislike a player. No fan here is required to like any player. I don’t usually like hearing fans bash one particular player over and over. But that’s their right. As long as they are following the rules. If you do like that same player, say you disagree and why.

There are no “new rules”. When each of us signed up to be on this forum we agreed to follow the same set of rules. Rules 8 and 9 tell us we should not “personally attack or insult other members”, nor “troll or antagonize other members”. Those two are the rules most often violated around here. Someone doesn’t like an opinion thrown out so they begin insulting and name calling. To me when someone starts that stuff, you have already lost the argument.

Understood. No labels. Thank you for the explanation, BH.

 

[Bobhaze]

It cracks me up we still have some here who "Watched" that game and thought "Man with better QB play we would've won".....2 things

1. Yes Dak did not play a good game so he deserves just as much blame as any other player on the team for the lose
2. when your team gets whipped to a man at every position there is no "One player" who couldve won that game, the niners got cute late and made the score closer than it really was...in hindsight they literally could have just kept handing the ball off and won by several touchdowns...

These things pretty much seal your fate

They could drop full coverage and get good pressure and stop the run with 5-6 man fronts (not good for winning a game)
They gained over 5 yards per carry even with us crowding the line (again not good for winning a game)
They had half the penalties and really one questionable one made the yardage kinda close...we tried to give up 100 yards in penalties (not good for winning a game)
Our coaches seemed to be at a lose on how to fix this over the last 6 games...(not good for winning a playoff game)

you could not run the ball on light fronts and you could not stop the pass rush on the same light fronts
you could not stop the run no matter how many people you stacked the box with
you gave them 90 yards in penalties

Which one of those speaks to "Lets replace one player and we win"?

Great post.

When you’re weak in the trenches, it probably takes more than one year to fix. Especially when your star LT hasn’t played a full season since 2015 and has missed 32 games since. Hate to say it, but LT is now a weakness at one of the most critical positions on the field.

 

[Captain-Crash]

“Calling it like it is” is usually an opinion. Fans who strongly dislike a player are usually just fans who strongly dislike a player. No fan here is required to like any player. I don’t usually like hearing fans bash one particular player over and over. But that’s their right. As long as they are following the rules. If you do like that same player, say you disagree and why.

There are no “new rules”. When each of us signed up to be on this forum we agreed to follow the same set of rules. Rules 8 and 9 tell us we should not “personally attack or insult other members”, nor “troll or antagonize other members”. Those two are the rules most often violated around here. Someone doesn’t like an opinion thrown out so they begin insulting and name calling. To me when someone starts that stuff, you have already lost the argument.

Best post I have ever read on here.
Appreciate you Bob.

 

[Bobhaze]

This post reminds me how happy I am we put draft capital to the offensive line and the pass rush. I don't know who decided not to throw the ball to CeeDee, either Dak or Moore, but as you stated we need that fixed. Also the stupid penalties need fixing. But at least we addressed some of that in the offseason by drafting for the trenches, drafting a potential playmaker at WR with Tolbert and letting Williams and Gregory go to other teams and take their penalties with them.

I’m happy we put some draft capital investment in OL and DL too. But drafts rarely instantly fix problems. Glad it was done but I’m not expecting an instant miracle.

 

[McKDaddy]

The Cowboys OL got whipped all day. Tyron Smith had his worst game of the season and Connor Williams had his usual bad holding call at the worst time.

Bob, I am continually baffled by the perception most fans have of our offensive line. Tyron & Zack, for a period of time, were certainly at the top of the league. But that isn't really the case now & it hasn't been for a few years. Even when Tyron was younger & healthier, he made mistakes at key times.

Are both still good when healthy? Yes. Are they dominant against better competition? No.

Zack had a very good start to the 2022 season & looked to have regained his dominant form. After about game 6 though he was just solid. He wasn't winning his matchups at the rate he should if you are truly a top player.

CWill was always a fringe player. Never really quite good enough but given a starting job due to draft pedigree and lack of competition. Biadasz was certainly up & down. He has to get much better in 2022 if he is going to be your long term lynchpin. Steele has done well considering but now we need to know if can he solidify his game and become a consistent starter or is he another fringe player.

Bottom line, as a group in 2021, they were just solid. But not dependable when you need them to be their best.

 

[McKDaddy]

But anyone watching the Cowboys in the 2nd half of the season could see who they truly were. That loss should not have been so unexpected. They weren't that good.

yep, many of us said that expecting a deep playoff run was either pure homerism or not understanding what you were seeing.

 

[Praxit]

..very good chance we get back there again. Better MENTAL plan is needed there on.

 

[Bullflop]

Last year reveals that Mike McCarthy had best find a way to make his OL improve by avoiding penalties.

Obviously, that has been his major priority during the offseason. Here's hoping his efforts pay off in 2022.

 

[nalam]

This screams how poor they are at making halftime adjustments. Is the mindset that "We're still in this so stick with the game plan"?

Adjustments work only up to a point, both when OL and DL got beat up straight on the mouth and couldn't recover , not much can be done , other than gimmicks like that Dak run in the end which are low percentage success anyway. someone should have told him to hand the ball to ref , still it was a long shot.

 

[plymkr]

I’m happy we put some draft capital investment in OL and DL too. But drafts rarely instantly fix problems. Glad it was done but I’m not expecting an instant miracle.

Right. Unless you're Parsons it takes about 2 years to see results from a draft class.

 

[Pass2Run]

14 penalties in a playoff game. Not enough is said about this.

It’s incredibly difficult to overcome 14 penalties in an NFL game, much less a playoff game against a quality opponent.

The refs absolutely killed us all last season. I don’t care if this counts as whining.

McCarthy’s Packers teams were among the NFL’s LEAST penalized routinely... and how is it that we were we so “UNDISCIPLINED” with penalties (worst in the NFL), yet still “DISCIPLINED” enough to lead the NFL in yards, points and takeaways???

Exactly.

Watch the game. And it's penalty after penalty after penalty.

It's maddening.

 

[Jake]

I don’t need to tell any Cowboys fan around here how disappointing that wild card game loss was to the 49ers last January. It was simply awful.

But nearly 7 months later, there are some things we could learn from that game if we want to take the next step and at least make an NFC championship game for the first time in 26 years. Here is a list of what that playoff taught us- have we made the right adjustments?

FIRST- SOME GAME FACTS- NINERS 23-COWBOYS 16

• The niners told us the week before the game they were going to run the ball down our throats. And they did exactly that, rushing for 169 yards.
• The niners had 341 total yards to 307 for the cowboys.
  
• The niners had 5 sacks; we had zero.
• The niners won TOP 34 minutes to 26 for Dallas. And that’s after we had the ball for most of the 4th qtr.
• In the niners first 7 possessions of the game, they scored 5 times and on their last possession of the first half, they even took a knee, leading 16-7.
• The Cowboys did not make a sack all game, and only had 4 pressures. Micah Parsons was consistently neutralized when rushing and D-Law was too. Randy Gregory had a few pressures but he had some stupid penalties too.
• The Cowboys OL got whipped all day. Tyron Smith had his worst game of the season and Connor Williams had his usual bad holding call at the worst time.
  
• For some reason Dak (or Kellen Moore) were choosing to not get the ball in the hands of their best playmakers.

So what can we learn from this?

• The trenches is where we got whipped and the biggest reason we lost that playoff game. IMO, It remains the biggest problem this team has. Not enough in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
• FOOTBALL 101: The team who wins the trenches usually wins- especially in the playoffs. You need skill position players too, but without the big guys on the line holding their own, you can’t win playoff games.

So here are some questions going into 2022 based on what last year should have taught us:

1. Did we strengthen our OL and DL this off-season? Enough to avoid a repeat of what the niners did to us last January? Can we finally stop the run?
2. Will our offense be able to get the ball to playmakers regardless of what the defense is doing? Dumping passes to Dalton Schultz all day won’t get it done. Can Kellen Moore get better? Can Dak consistently get the ball to his playmakers?

The answers to these questions will probably determine if this team does something more than what it’s done the last qtr century. We will start seeing soon.

Dak is 1-3 in playoff games. The Cowboys have scored 94 points in those 4 games (23.5 ppg). Great? Not quite, but also not terrible.

The one win was 24-22 over Seattle. The 22 points allowed are the fewest the Cowboys gave up in Dak's 4 playoff games. The losses?

34-31 to Green Bay. Defense allowed 4 TD drives of 75 yards or more, and couldn't hold GB for 30 seconds to force OT after the Cowboys tied it.
30-22 to the Rams. The defense allowed 273 yards rushing to CJ Anderson and other scrubs. Not even close to good enough, again.
23-17 to the Niners. Offense definitely had some issues, blocking being one of them, but the bottom half ypc run defense struck again and let Jimmy G hand off a lot.

We can argue all day about Dak and the offense, but one thing that has been consistent during his playoff appearances is a defense that has not been championship caliber. Until that gets fixed - frankly, it was often a problem for Romo too - the Cowboys playoff results won't change.

 

[Motorola]

yep, many of us said that expecting a deep playoff run was either pure homerism or not understanding what you were seeing.

Scoring 50+ points on the division rivals in two of the last three games (while ignoring the home loss to ARI in between the two rollover wins) blinded their vision.

 

[kskboys]

Wow....we were totally dominated and still had a chance at the end.

Yup, because they have no QB. Put a good QB on that team, and they beat us by 30.

 

[kskboys]

The team has taken steps to fix the issues. They said right after the game that penalties were something they would work on and almost every draft pick they made was on guys who are physical, tough, aggressive players. Smith, Ferguson, Waletzko, and Ridgeway specifically. Smith and Waletzko are among the most physical, aggressive college OL that I’ve ever seen.

Of course Ridgeway might have a screw loose as well.

They also got rid of some players that they no longer wanted on the team. Dallas got rid of Connor Williams and La’el Collins, two undisciplined players, and Amari Cooper, a guy that played without fire and emotion (Collins also sometimes didn’t seem to care that much about the outcome, as well).

And while I do agree that the Cowboys got beat physically that day… that 49’ers team did the same thing almost all the way to the super bowl, including physically beating the #1 seed Packers at Lambeau. They went all the way to the NFCCG and lost to eventual super bowl champion Rams… barely.

San Francisco caught on fire at the end of the 2021 regular season, even beating the Rams in Los Angeles in the last game of the season. They damn near went all the way. That regular season finale against the Rams was a physical beat down. They out muscled the Rams in that game way more than they did the Cowboys in Dallas. I watched that game as it happened, and I wanted the Rams to win because I wanted no part of the Niners in the playoffs. When San Francisco won and drew Dallas, I just shook my head. They were rolling.

Anyway, IMO, the biggest issue on that day were the penalties. Without a **** ton of flags that day, the Cowboys would have had a much better chance of winning it.

Working on the penalties and changing the players to guys who play physical football and play with emotion is precisely what the team needed to do. So yeah, they saw it and are working to fix it.

Noooo, the biggest issue by leaps and bounds is that we couldn't stop the run.